The planes were in roughly the same sector of airspace over WARSAW. The BUK has a tracking system that can acquire aircraft at a distance of max 42km. The distance from launcher location on the eastern Ukrainian border to Warsaw airspace is WAY more than 42km.
That’s what I heard elsewhere, the BUK.
“The BUK has a tracking system that can acquire aircraft at a distance of max 42km.”
Given the acquisition, than travel time to the target,plus the speed of the aircraft, course, distance from the laubcher, etc., that make the engagement window VERY SMALL....
IMUI, that means an independent operator making a split-second decision to fire.